HOOVER, Alabama - South Carolina was one of the top teams in the SEC last year, going 11-2 and finishing with an Outback Bowl win over Michigan.

The Gamecocks return six offensive starters and five defensive starters, including star defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, quarterback Connor Shaw and receiver/hoopster Bruce Ellington.

Head coach Steve Spurrier is the fourth and final coach to speak today at SEC Media Days, following Ole Miss' Hugh Freeze, Missouri's Gary Pinkel and Florida's Will Muschamp.

Hit refresh, and we'll have some updates from what Spurrier has to say today. Spurrier is scheduled to take the podium at 5:10 p.m. here.

(Of note, it's 5:22 and no sign of Spurrier in the main room yet)

**Now Spurrier is here, at 5:25. Only 15 minutes late. He appreciates us hanging around.

South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier speaks during the SEC Media Days 2013 at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham - The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Ala., Tuesday July 16, 2013.
(Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

Spurrier now talking about the head coaches' meeting in Destin. The coaches' proposal was for the college football and basketball players who bring in an enormous amount of money, those players, the income producers, "we should provide some expense money so their parents can go to games, lodging, travel, etc." Football, $300 a game, basketball a little less.

"Just to have a little bit of pocket money and their parents to have money to come to games," said Spurrier. All coaches in both sports voted unanimously. Remember this is just a proposal. "This is tiny, compared to the money that's coming in now. We all know that."

Then he made an Obama reference, saying he'd shut up if Obama told him he needed to. "This is not pay for play. This is just expense money."

***Another thing that came up - the 4-team playoff. All 14 of head coaches believe that Notre Dame should join the ACC and play football like the rest of us. Spurrier and coaches in a conference believe that Notre Dame should be fully in a football conference.

***Spurrier on schedules: They're not always fair. Alabama and Georgia played for the title. Alabama did not play the 3 top teams in the East, Georgia did not play the 3 top teams in the West. How to make it fair? We're not sure to do it, and LSU and Florida have the most legit gripe of all of us. "For the sake of fairness, whatever the best way to do it is the best way we'd like to do it as coaches. We're not so sure right now that everybody has the same thing." Perhaps they should only count the division games, he says.

***"We've got a pretty good team, I think." Spurrier on his team. Gamecocks have young players ready to step up and contribute. SC has two good quarterbacks in Connor Shaw and Dylan Thompson. Good tight ends, running backs. Good or great? Time will tell.

Clowney "is a disruptive player that every offense has to change their blocking assignments to account for Jadeveon." Clowney ran a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash in summer workouts, Spurrier said.

***Spurrier on Clowney and keeping his head on straight. "Jadeveon has done an excellent job sort of staying out of the limelight all summer. He's been a good teammate. He's been there for all the workouts." - A little lighter than he was at the end of last year. Individual awards are nice, but the most important thing for him is helping SC win an SEC title.

***Spurrier likes opening the season on Thursday night because of the extra practice time. He doesn't like it as much during the middle of the year, but to open up, it's a good thing.

***Could Clowney play on offense? "Not really. We've got a bunch of offensive players that are really good. He's capable of running with the ball. That wouldn't make sense to be running with the ball and sprain and ankle and be standing over there with me the rest of the season, that wouldn't be very smart."

***QB Connor Shaw missed the spring. It may help Connor, says Spurrier. Shaw had a stress fracture in his back and had surgery on his foot. He's ready to go. He could play RB or WR, so possibly SC could put two quarterbacks on the field at the same time. He's solid and can carry the ball and take a pounding, while Dylan has developed into a dropback passer. They want to use both as best as they can.

***Spurrier asked if he'd turn in Florida for a minor NCAA violation and his policy: "We've probably turned in some people here and there. We just turn it in to our compliance and say Can they do that? They turn it into the league office here." If somebody would obviously breaking the rules ... I would hope they would turn us in if we were breaking rules. I'm not big on breaking rules if we know we're breaking rules." He said he wouldn't turn in the Gators for a minor violation like talking to a kid at a basketball game. "We don't turn a lot of people in anyway. You can't ever condone breaking the rules on purpose."

***Best shot at an SEC championship? "Last 3 years we've been sorta up there in the hunt. Got there 3 years ago and fell flat on our face against Auburn. We're certainly knocking at the door, but we need to win those crucial games and see what happens."

***More talk on playing Georgia at the beginning of the season and how fortunate South Carolina has been playing them. Last year, Georgia ended up winning the East, though. "That game is important, but it didn't determine the division champion."

***South Carolina has 2 good QBs, but Spurrier isn't sure if he'll play them both in every game. Made a Rex Grossman/Jesse Palmer comparison. Shaw and Thompson both like each other, though, so that's good.

***Can Ellis Johnson replicate the success he had at South Carolina at Auburn? "If he's got the players we had, certainly he's got a chance to do it." References to Melvin Ingram, Stephon Gilmore. "If he's got that kind of talent, they can be pretty good. I'll put it that way."

***Spurrier said what they have schedule-wise in the non-conference "is about right." Spurrier thinks it's important to play smaller schools in the state. "Wofford almost beats us every year they come in here. It helps the smaller schools in the state to get a big paycheck."

***More on Clowney's size and speed, but what's overlooked? "Probably mainly his hustle, his run from sideline to sideline. A lot of teams try to run straight at him. The Michigan game, the power play, their tight end was supposed to block down and he didn't do it. He just split those guys and that's how the hit occurred. They messed up a blocking assignment. His pursuit is the biggest thing, chasing the ballcarriers and the quarterback."

***Now a Hugh Freeze visor question and how their friendship developed over the last year. "Last year, at this time Ole Miss was 2-10. They're a lot better this year. Hugh and I have a lot in common. We play golf, wear visors, we call the plays. How can you not like a guy like Hugh Freeze?"

***Spurrier said he never thought he could have stayed longer at SC than he did at Florida. The goal was to be the winningest coach here. It was only about 65 wins. It worked out. "I was hoping to be here 8 to 10. Now I'm hoping to be here 9 to 12, something like that. I've got an excellent coaching staff. I've got guys who can recruit, coach, do everything. It's not a stressful job for me like some guys have it. Burnout is not something that I think I'm going to get, unless we go real bad. And it can go real bad if you think it can."

***On playing 10 BCS games "We're playing that. Yeah, I agree with that." Four of us (in the SEC) that have in-state rivals against ACC schools (including what will be Louisville). All the other schools want to play 9 conference games.

***Final question - and it's on his 50th high school reunion. "It was sort of quiet. I thought it was going to be a little bit louder. I looked around at 9:30 and half of them had already left. It was OK. It was actually a pretty good turnout."